Oscar sleeps in jar. Okay?

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knifegill

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Sep 19, 2005
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Oscar Tummy
So my new wild-caught O sleeps in a glass jar. Problem is, the jar is not big enough to trust for long. His height is only slightly less that the diameter of the opening. My questions range from whether or not it is normal for O's to sleep in a cave to will I replace this jar with a larger cave once I remove it? Does anyone else's Oscar sleep tucked away? My first Oscar didn't. She just sort of turned into tank junk and drifted sleepily. Can this behavior become dangerous via oxygen depletion or waste accumulation? I mean, I clean the jar, but he poos so often, you know? And could this behavior indicate some less-than-satisfactory condition outside the tank? Street lights do pour in through the window, making darkness a difficult goal. Maybe he wants the dark-brown of the glass because it is less distracting. Any ideas, recommendations?

As a preemptive strike, I realize that darkening the room could coax him out of it. What I'm after are opinions about the safety, sanitation and mental factors surrounding this shelter-seeking behavior.
 
Flower pot would provide more circulation...interesting. So it is acceptable behavior, then, for an O to be troglodytic?
 
In my experience oscars as well as other cichlids sleep in some weird positions but oscars can be more eccentric than others, as long as the gap is big enough to fit in it should be able to get out again..
When our pair were small the female slept vertically in the tower of a plastic castle in their tank :screwy:
 
lol my o used to just bounce around like the pong video game i noticed.
turn on the lights and it would just float around til it hit something hard and woke up haha.

but when it wasn't it would sleep under the drift wood looking dead haha.
 
I dont think its odd behavior, any fish can/will hide is they need to. If they are stressed, scared, insecure, shy, etc, they will hide. Just replace the jar with something bigger, and dont worry about your Oscar if he hides.
 
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